Mr. Ward started something called Open Mike Fridays in his English class one day after one student decided to read a poem he had written in response to one of their assignments. The rest of the class takes this in stride, and each week students read their own poetry in front of the class, poems that pertain to their lives and the various issues that each of them are dealing with. Throughout the school year, the students learn a lot more about each other, and realize that they are all more alike than they thought. Each poem gives voice to each of the "stereotypes" in their school: the jock, the teenage mom, the tough rapper, the beauty queen, the artist, etc. In the end, they realize that even though they all come from different backgrounds and deal with different things, they are all more similar than they first realized.

I started this book without really knowing what it was about, I just knew that it somehow dealt with multicultural issues. I found that I liked the way the book was formatted, with the narrative of the student, and then the poem depicting whatever issue they were dealing with at the time. Anyone reading this book could probably find a character that has similar problems to them, and it sometimes helps to know that other people deal with the same things that you do, as the characters learn in the book. I think this book also helps to make poetry cool, as seen through the way the students react when their teacher allows them to create this poetry and read it to the class once a week. They enjoy creating something of their own and being able to show others that they don't necessarily fit the image that was thrust upon them by the rest of the school. Bronx Masquerade definitely shows a melting pot in this high school, and shows that no matter what your skin color, you can get along with everyone else.

For a classroom setting, I think this book would be really good to use in some kind of poetry unit, or multicultural unit, or perhaps the blending of both. The poetry of the students in the book might inspire some of your own students to want to create their own poetry, which is something not a lot of students actually get excited about. Bronx Masquerade could definitely be an excellent tool in almost any classroom setting.